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The Slow Conquest: Administrative Integration of Malwa into the Maratha Empire, 1720–1760

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Stewart N. Gordon
Stewart N. Gordon
Affiliation:
Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of Michigan
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Extract

The eighteenth century in India has generally been described as a period of great turbulence, characterized by march and counter-march, rising and falling fortunes, and bewildering political intrigue. Many historians, focusing on this aspect, have dismissed the century as merely an unsavory hiatus between the collapse of the Mughal Empire and the rise of British domination. Yet there was more to the century than the march and counter-march of armies. The other aspect of the period was the emergence of strong successor states in Gujerat, Bengal, Oudhe, Malwa, Hyderabad, Mysore, and the Punjab. Recently, historians have begun exploring these successor states, looking both back towards the Mughal administrative and ideological heritage and forward towards their role as princely states in British India. There are also important issues within the century itself, such as the role of successor states in developing regional language and consciousness, and successor states as channels of economic and social mobility.

Type
Articles
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , February 1977 , pp. 1 - 40
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1977

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References

The research for this study was carried out in Poona during 1969–71 with the support of a Fulbright-Hayes Language Fellowship. I wish to thank B.D. Apte, A.R. Kulkarni, J.H. Broomfield and M. Gluchkov for their support during the project.

1 Thompson, Edward John and Garratt, G. T., Rise and Fulfilment of British Rule in India (London, 1934), p. 63.Google Scholar

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3 Day, Upendranath, Medieval Malwa: A Political and Cultural History, 1401–1562 (Delhi, 1965), pp. 22.Google Scholar

4 Central India State Gazetteers, V (Lucknow, 1907–1909), pp. 518–9.Google Scholar

5 Ibid, pp. 315–23.

6 Singh, Raghubir, Malwa in Transition, or A Century of Anarchy: The First Phase, 1968–1765 (Bombay, 1936), pp. 13–15.Google Scholar See also Qanungo, K. R., Studies in Rajput History (Delhi, 1960), p. 101.Google Scholar

7 Ibid., p. 15. See also Malcolm, John, A Memoir of Central India, I (London, 1832), 46.Google Scholar

8 Mahadev, Govind Ranade, Rise of Maratha Power (Bombay, 1900), p. 30.Google Scholar

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10 Gujar, M.V. (ed.), Pawar Dharanycha Itihasachi Sadhne (Historical Documents of the Pawars of Dhar) (Poona, 1940), Letters 14, 16, 31.Google Scholar

11 Thakur, V.V. (ed.), Holkarshahicha Itihasachi Sadhne (Historical Documents of the Holkars), I (Indore, 1944), p. 3, Letter 4 and p. 4, Letter 5.Google Scholar See also, Lele, K. K. and Oak, S. K., History of Dhar State: Marathi Saramjyant pawarache dharachya pawarache mahaty v daji (Importance and rank of the Pawars, especially of Dhar, in the Maratha Empire), II (Poona, 1934), 40–50.Google ScholarThere are fifteen such letters printed in this volume. See also, Gujar, , Pawar, p. 20, Letter 17; p. 20; Letter 23.Google Scholar

12 Gujar, , Pawar, p. 23, Letter 31.Google Scholar

13 Hussain, Yusuf, The First Nizam: The Life and Times of Nizam'l-Mulk Asaf Jah I (Bombay, 1963), p. 204.Google Scholar

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15 Places of collection for 1731 are taken from a receipt. Poona Daftar. P.D.H.R. No. 179. Information on 1732 is located in a group of accounts concerning the division of the actual collection, between the Peshwa and his generals. P.D.H.R. No. 154.Google Scholar

16 The best discussion of this ‘diplomatic offensive’ is in Chandra, Satish, Parties and Politics at the Mughal Court, 1707–1740 (Aligarh, 1959), pp. 196, 201, 203.Google Scholar

17 Chandra, , Parties, pp. 221–2.Google Scholar

18 Lele and Oak, History of Dhar, pp. 15–18.Google Scholar

19 Ibid, pp. 27–30, 39–40.

20 Gujar, , Pawar, p. 16, Letter 18.Google Scholar See also Gazetteer Series, I, 15–16.Google Scholar

21 Lele and Oak, History of Dhar, pp. 10–11.Google Scholar

22 Thakur, , Holkarshahicha, p. 6, Letter 9.Google Scholar See also State Gazetteer Series, II, 14.Google Scholar

23 Lele and Oak, History of Dhar, pp. 29, 32–4.Google Scholar See also Joshi, P.M. (ed.), Selections from the Peshwa Daftar, I (Bombay, 1957), p. 6, Letter 6.Google ScholarGujar, , Pawar, pp. 28–9, Letter 41; Thakur, Holkarshahicha, p. 16, Letter 26.Google Scholar

24 P.D.H.R. No. 165. See also P.D.H.R. No. 185, stamped B.Google Scholar

25 I am following Sarkar's description of the Peshwa–Nizam Treaty of 1738 as described in Sarkar, Jadunath, The Fall of the Mughal Empire, Third Edition (New Delhi, 1964), I, 168 ff. Unfortunately he does not give his source.Google Scholar

26 P.D.H.R. No. 165, No. 185, stamped B.Google Scholar

27 Ibid.

28 P.D.H.R. No. 179. A ‘taleband’ (yearly receipts and balance) stamped ‘O’. Also Rumal, No. 185, a Rajamandal paper (from the Peshwa's daybook) stamped ‘B’. Several papers from the subsequent years, 1743, 1744, 1745 are found in both No. 179 and No. 185.Google Scholar

29 Malhotra, O. P., ‘History of Bhopal State from its Foundation up to 1819 A.D.’ (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Vikram University, Ujjain, 1968), p. 101.Google Scholar

30 Hough, William, Brief History of the Bhopal Principality (Calcutta, 1845), p. 8.Google Scholar This event is described from the Maratha side in Sardesai, G. S., Selections from Peshwa Daftar (Bombay, 1933), XXI, 10.Google Scholar

31 P.D.H.R. No. 72.Google Scholar

32 Note that I have put the Peshwa at the top of the hierarchy. In Malwa, this was strictly true, as the naib-subahdarship was bestowed on him. In other areas, particularly in the Deccan, the titular head, the Chatrapati, in Shivaji's line played the dominant role in selection of bureaucracy and overseeing the administration.Google Scholar

33 The whole data, as analyzed in Appendix I, yielded about fifty different names of Kamavisdars for the period 1738–1750.Google Scholar

34 P.D.H.R. No. 187, Rajamandal paper (The Chatrapati's day book of decisions), 1745.Google Scholar

35 P.D.H.R. No. 168, Hisseb (account), 1745. This revenue year apparently began in the Muhammadan month of Rajab. Each year was different because of the difference between the Muslim lunar calendar and the Hindu calendar current in Maharashtra.Google Scholar

36 P.D.H.R. No. 190, Yadi (formal memorandum), 1745.Google Scholar

37 P.D.H.R. No. 197, Hisseb, 1745.Google Scholar

38 P.D.H.R. No. 160, No. 162, Both have extensive short-term village and pargana accounts from 1742–1743 for Sironj.Google Scholar

39 P.D.H.R. No. 162, Hisseb, 1743. See also No. 161.Google Scholar

40 P.D.H.R. No. 123, Hisseb, 1743. In this rumal is a list of religious grantees and other inams.Google Scholar

41 P.D.H.R. No. 190, Rajamandal, 1752.Google Scholar

42 P.D.H.R. No. 123, Zhadti, 1742.Google Scholar

43 P.D.H.R. No. 154, Zhadti, 1745–1746.Google Scholar

44 P.D.H.R. No. 192, Hisseb and Taleband, 1750.Google Scholar

45 We have somewhat more detailed information on Dhar than on other contracts. Dhar was granted to a Maratha General (Pawar) in 1732 and sequestered in 1749. Since the Peshwa had no revenue information on the area, a very full settlement had to be made.Google Scholar

46 P.D.H.R. No. 171, Rajamandal, 1749–1754.Google Scholar

47 P.D.H.R. No. 162, Istawa, 1744–1754.Google Scholar

48 This graph was constructed by dividing the data by government type and grouping into the years shown (1729–1733, 1734–36, etc.).Google Scholar

49 This conclusion was reached by making a new variable, rasad/jama. Then the data were grouped by year (1729–1736, 1737–40, 1741–44, etc.), and the mean found for each group.

50 The data were handled as in fns 48 and 49. The new variable was mahal mazkur/ jama.

51 This graph was constructed by merely dividing the data by government type, then further dividing it into groups of years. The mean garrison strength was then computed for each group of years for each government type. Note that this graph does not ‘prove’ anything; the drop in garrison troop strength after 1750 could be explained by missing data, or even drawing off of garrisons for duty elsewhere. Nevertheless, the amount collected was rising, so local disruption was lessening.Google Scholar

52 Here, I divided the data into groups of years, and calculated the mean rate of interest for each group of years.

53 These conclusions from the Maratha material fit well with the history of Dost Muhammad Khan, another military adventurer operating in Malwa in the opening decades of the eighteenth century. He succeeded in setting up a small state in southeast Malwa. The fullest history of his activities is in a recent unpublished dissertation. Maihotra, O. P., ‘History of Bhopal State from its Foundationup to 1819 A.D.’ (Vikram University, Ujjain, 1968).Google Scholar